Producer: The CW
Writers: Marc Gugenheim, Wendy Mericle, Greg Berlanti, Beth Schwartz
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Featuring: Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Paul Blackthorne, Neal McDonough
Release date: USA: OUT NOW! UK: 14 October 2015 Sky 1

Arrow is back, and things are going to be different. Or are they?

Arrow Season 3 Episode 1, The City on the Edge of Darkness begins with Oliver Queen (Stephen Arnell) tearing through a forest, dramatic music blaring, only to emerge in a bedroom community jogging home to Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), still by far the show’s best character.

It’s the new and improved Oliver. Instead of planning an assault on Ra’s al Guhl, Oliver is off to the farmer’s market to buy brunch fixin’s while Felicity tries to play Stepford Wife and fails. And since all the young girls love Arrow, Arnell gets a shirtless scene. But over in Star City things have are going to Hell. Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), Speedy/Red Arrow (Willa Holland) and John Diggle (David Ramsey) are chasing a stolen semi full of high-tech weapons. Speedy is a little too into it. “This is so cool,” she says as bullets fly past. Even Diggle, now wearing a Magneto helmet for some reason, is cracking jokes.

The bad guys get away, and the team realizes it needs help. So it’s back to Oliver they go. He refuses to join in, but you know in the end Oliver will come. It wouldn’t be the CW without some of its patented angst.

Arrow is generally better written than its sister show: The Flash, but this episode has some plot holes. Most egregious: bad guy Damien Darque shows up at city hall and confesses his crimes, and everybody just lets him stroll out the door. No one even asks why police Captain Quentin Lance does nothing. And CW has some of the most inept law enforcement on television (Gotham, Flash), and Arrow is no exception. They never seem to learn and they should.

Overall the Arrow season opener gets an A for effort and a B- for execution. The episode is supposed to be about change, but it’s all cosmetic: Starling City is now Star City; Arrow is now Green Arrow. But it’s still the same old fight in the same old city with the same old people. But maybe change is overrated.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker